Vermont Historical Society displays "Ten Treasures"

(Host) The Vermont Historical Society has launched a new fund to buy artifacts for its library.

To celebrate, the library is displaying this month "ten treasures'' from the library collection.

VPR's Ross Sneyd got a look.

(Sneyd) These are treasures that could never be replaced.

(Steps Sound of footsteps on stairs, doors opening, electronic key card beeping)

(Sneyd) So they're kept pretty secure, down here in the basement of the historical society's headquarters in Barre, behind locked doors.

(Carnahan) "This is what we call the vault at the Vermont Historical Society. It's not a vault like a bank vault, but it's a climate controlled area in the basement of the Spaulding building in Barre. It's where we keep some of the state's treasures.''

(Sneyd) Paul Carnahan is the historical society's librarian, so he's the guardian of some of the state's rarest printed material: books, photographs, even maps.

And he decided which were the choicest gems for this exhibition.

So, what made the cut?

There's William Chambers' "A Book of Directions Necessary Fore all Commanders of Vessels Employed on Lake Champlain.''

It's an atlas dating to the summer of 1779, when Chambers was "master and commander'' of the British fleet on Lake Champlain. Chambers used the atlas as an aid to navigation - and to keep tabs on Vermonters he regarded as - quote - "deceitful and untrustworthy.''

That would be people like Ethan Allen, the original Green Mountain Boy. He's in the historical society exhibition.

(Carnahan2) "One of the things I have here is Ethan Allen's, `Reason, the Only Oracle of Man.' It's his deist tract published in Vermont, in Bennington, in 1784.''

(Sneyd) Carnahan says the age alone would make this valuable.

Once it was printed, copies were warehoused in a barn. But before the publisher could decide what to do with them, lightning struck the barn and it burned to the ground. Only 30 books survived and this one of them.

(Carnahan3) "It's valuable to us because of its strong connection to Vermont. This collection is about Vermont and nothing says Vermont in the popular mind more than Ethan Allen.''

(Sneyd) The title page of another slim volume in the collection doesn't even list the author. Carnahan says that helps make it priceless.

(Carnahan) "It says, ‘The Maternal Physician, A Treatise on the Nurture and Management of Infants, from the Birth Until Two Years Old, Being the Result of 16 Years Experience in the Nursery, Illustrated by Extracts in the Most Approved Medical Authors. By an American Matron.'''

(Sneyd) The American Matron was Mary Tyler of Brattleboro. She was married to state Supreme Court justice Royall Tyler and the mother of 11 children.

Mary Tyler published her book in 1811 at a time when women weren't supposed to be authors, let alone experts on anything, including child-rearing.

So she wrote anonymously. But the historical society's copy includes a daguerreotype photographic portrait of her.

Carnahan counts other daguerreotypes of Vermont landscapes among his library's treasures.

(Carnahan) "These are the earliest known photographic images of Vermont. They were taken by a photographer by the name of Thomas Easterly from Guilford. These would have been taken right about 1845.''

(Sneyd) An artist's rendering of a 20th century controversy is another prize. It's a hand-colored map of the state, dated 1934, and it depicts the route the proposed Green Mountain Parkway would have taken.

That was a park-like highway that was to follow the spine of the Green Mountains. Sponsors saw it as a way to drag Vermont out of the Depression.

Vermonters had other ideas.

(Carnahan) "It came to a statewide referendum in 1936, so two years after these plans were drawn. And Vermonters ultimately rejected the $18 million project by a vote of 43,000 to 31,000.''

(Sneyd) Carnahan says this map and the other artifacts will be on display just through December at the library's headquarters in Barre. Then they'll go back to the vault for safekeeping.

(Sound of doors closing and locking)

For VPR News, I'm Ross Sneyd.